Trudeau shows off ‘balancing babies act’ during campaign stop

Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau balances his five-month-old son Hadrien on his hand while attending the B.C. Day Liberal barbeque in Vancouver on Monday.

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau showed off some dance moves and balanced babies — including his own — in the palm of his right hand during a day of pre-election campaigning in the Lower Mainland on Monday.

“See, I don’t just do this with my own kids,” he said after holding up a six-month-old like a circus performer while the child’s nervous parents tried to capture the strange scene on camera during a Liberal picnic at Douglas Park.

Earlier, he wowed supporters by elevating his five-month-old son Hadrien as wife Sophie Gregoire and their older son Xavier looked on.

It’s a trick he learned from his father, the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and involves some delicate manoeuvring given that babies that age typically are unable to stand — but according to Trudeau desperately want to.

“They’re very excited. You twist their ankles at the same time as you’re holding them up, and their (knees) lock and they’re just happy to be big and proud and they can see everything and everyone’s smiling,” he said, after demonstrating his technique using a journalist’s camera and tripod.

An hour later, at the West Vancouver Harmony Arts Festival, local Liberal candidate and former mayor Pam Goldsmith-Jones grabbed Trudeau to dance to the Dal Richards Orchestra’s cover of the classic Mack The Knife.

A Liberal media aide cringed — dancing is apparently not the Liberal leader’s strong suit — but Trudeau managed to win over the crowd in a Conservative riding.

His three-day tour included participation at Sunday’s Pride Parade, a Sunday evening event for Indo-Canadians in Surrey, fundraisers, a meeting Tuesday with municipal leaders, and several media events.

Trudeau’s Liberals placed a distant third in the 2011 federal election, but have held a narrow lead in national polls since he assumed the party’s leadership last year. The next election is scheduled for October of 2015.

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